English 3412, Survey of American Literature II

Winter 1997

Goals: In this course we will read a variety of literary works written in the last half of the 19th century with an eye toward the world(s) the authors depict. To some degree we will explore how well we can (re)construct 19th-century America using literature as the source of information. In the first half of the course we will focus on some "classics," Thoreau's Walden, poems by Whitman and Dickinson, and two of Melville's stories. Abraham Lincoln's speeches will help to highlight the public context concerning the debate over slavery and the nature of democracy, and the Civil War. In the second half we will use Howells' novel The Rise of Silas Lapham to introduce major postwar themes - the rise of capitalism and its conflicts with labor, changing roles of women, and the urbanization of the country. These themes and others will be illustrated with shorter readings from the Heath anthology.

Texts:

• Paul Lauter, et al., eds. The Heath anthology of American literature, 2nd edition, ISBN 0-669-32973-8, VOLUME 2
• Abraham Lincoln, Great speeches, Dover ISBN 0-486-26872-1
• Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, life in the woods, Dover ISBN 0-486-28495-9
• Emily Dickinson, Selected poems, Dover ISBN 0-486-26466-1
• Walt Whitman, Selected poems, Dover ISBN 0-486-26878-0
• Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno, Dover ISBN 0-486-26473-4
• William Dean Howells, The rise of Silas Lapham, Signet, ISBN 0-451-52496-9
• Donald Ross, A Historical Companion to American Literature, 1850-1900 available in the Beckwith Copy Center, 700 Washington Ave., S.E.

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Department of English, University of Minnesota
URL: http://English.cla.umn.edu/FacultyProfiles/Ross/Courses/
Please send comments to: Donald Ross
Last revised 15 November 1999

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